Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Defense Fuels 110-97 Win Over New York, Luka Dončić Scores 35, Austin Reaves 25

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Lakers finally pick up a win against a good team and they do it with defenses. That's something they can build on with a tough schedule coming up. We'll tell you next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends, even on holidays.

Starting point is 00:00:32 And now more than once a day, no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's never going to be locked behind a paywall, whether you're getting it through Spotify or Apple, no matter how you're doing it. You're helping make the locked on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network anywhere in any universe anywhere. Brian Komeneski and Andy Kaminetsky covered the Lakers for nearly 20 years with the SPN, with the athletic, with the L.A. Times.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Plenty to unpack from Sundays very, very badly needed, 11097 win over the Knicks, whether that's talking to just about their record against the good teams in the league, nice bounce back game for Austin Reeves, who was aggressive from the jump. So lots of good stuff to get into, Andy, but we'll start with the way they won this game. And it was based entirely on their defense because the offense was no great shakes throughout. Well, particularly in the fourth quarter, I thought the offense really stalled. And that was really the moment where the Lakers had no choice other than to rely on their defense,

Starting point is 00:01:36 have been really good throughout this entire game. This was one of the best wins of the season, period, but it may very well be their best defensive win of the season. And in that fourth quarter especially where the Knicks were starting to make a push, they got it down to 10 or 9. That I believe was this close play. A couple times during the game. And the Lakers kept relying on some combination of stops or activity disrupting.

Starting point is 00:02:06 physicality, like across the board, everybody who played in this game had a role, not just in the win, but specifically the defense of the win. Like this was the rare Laker game where it felt like nobody was a weak spot at all. Yeah. And, you know, it's fun.

Starting point is 00:02:25 Like New York, let's be very clear here, is an excellent offensive team. You know, they came, I believe they came to the game third in offensive efficiency. see. Averaging 1-17 heading into this game. So, you know, this is a good group that can score. And I am not going to say, like, every game has this where there's like variance in shot-making and, you know, Luca hit a couple shots falling out of bounds like Izzy

Starting point is 00:02:51 sometimes does and all of that. Like, so there is always going to be some variance in shot-making. The Knicks missed some open threes that they might normally make. Okay, fine. That's going to happen. The Lakers missed some open threes they can normally make. make what was consistent throughout and that where you can point to and say that's the defense you know so maybe you don't want to be a skeptic you don't want to point to new york's

Starting point is 00:03:14 shooting percentage fine point to the turnovers point to the the the the turnovers forced the number of hands that the lakers got on passes and second efforts third efforts you know block shots things like that those are tangible measurements of of effort and execution. And the Lakers, I thought, got straight A's across the board. Like, you know, I know people are talking in the chat about Marcus Smart. I know, ADE, you're going to talk about, you know, what Smart was doing. He was one for 10 from the field.

Starting point is 00:03:50 One for 10. And finish the game at a plus 27 to lead both teams by a mile. And look, plus minus. It's not the perfect measurement of stuff. When you're plus 27, you're obviously having a pretty good impact. And when you only make one of 10 shots, it tells you how much other stuff you were doing. Yeah, there was a sequence in the second quarter where Marcus Smart. He missed back-to-back open looks and he missed some shots that he normally will or,

Starting point is 00:04:22 if nothing else, should make. But on the second of those misses, he got back on defense and drew a charge on Josh Hart. and he drew the fourth foul on O'G. and O'J. Anobie on a charge with a little bit over a minute left in the third quarter. The Lakers in general did a really good job drawing fouls on team members of the Knicks. But just there were so many plays where Marcus Smart was just all over the place and his energy and relentlessness was felt. There was one point where he ended up in the court side seats because he was chasing down a loose ball.

Starting point is 00:05:00 ended up in a collision with Bill Maher. So, you know, extra points for Marcus Smart on that one. And it was just... Not a fan? Extra points for Marcus Smart on that one. So it was just, I really... His play in this game, I saw in the chat. I don't remember who, but someone said that they thought Marcus Smart

Starting point is 00:05:19 set the tone for the Lakers in this game defensively. And if nothing else, I think Marcus made sure that the tone, whoever you want to credit for setting it maintained for the entire 38 minutes. Believe it or not, actually, DeAndre Aiton was one of the guys who helped set the tone in this game defensively. Like, he didn't have a ton of minutes. His stats will not jump off the sheet. And if you didn't watch the game, you might think that DeAndre did not have much of an impact,

Starting point is 00:05:52 particularly in the first quarter, Aiton was really, really good. Yeah, I mean, he played stretches. His big stretches were in the first and in the third. And he was active. We'll talk about Aiton before the end of the show or maybe over the course of the week. But he was getting the typical treatment from Shaq from Barclay at halftime about not having, I think he had two points of the half. And it's like I have some thoughts.

Starting point is 00:06:22 Go to the man of ball, park outposts and. Yeah, basically. But like how we talk about. But like how we talk about Aiton and what is considered a good game for him probably needs to change. I do want to let people know that today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Fandual is giving you a way to turn that energy into bigger. Fandual is giving you a way to turn that energy into bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. Head to Fandual.com to get started.

Starting point is 00:06:50 That's fendual.com. Fandual play your game. So here are some numbers from your start. cars. Luka and AR combined for 60 points, 35 for Luca, 25 for Austin. Luca had eight rebounds, four assists. Austin had four rebounds, five assists, only one turnover. But they had three, five steals between the two of them. Austin also blocked a shot. Those guys were really active defensively. And you know,

Starting point is 00:07:24 you talk about them being your weak links and there's no question that they are. Well, I will say, relatively speaking, Luke is not as bad. No, no, but I beyond the not as bad as the reputation, the last couple weeks, I actually think Lucas defense forget being better than the reputation or whatever. I actually think it's been pretty good. It has been, but like there are certain very noticeable ways that, you know, he can still sometimes be probably like he's not, does not have the quickest feet, in the open floor can do blowbys and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:07:57 By the way, it happens to almost all NBA players that they get beat off to dribble that way. But, you know, the effort has been there and, you know, his anticipation in passing lanes. I think he's gambling a little bit less. The biggest problem with Luca defensively often is he's not there because he's complaining at the other end. And so this is the hidden upside to the 15th technical.

Starting point is 00:08:20 It is. He just has to. smile politely or curse it guys in Slovenian like something like that like which side note i don't know why guys like luka who are multilingual don't do this stuff more in a different language i wonder i think that some they probably i would imagine referees at a certain point do know that they're being cursed at in another language but it is probably if you say it with like a smile it's easier to ignore if it's in like i know how to say x y and z and Spanish or Italian or Serbian or Slovenian or all of the other languages that you're going to

Starting point is 00:09:00 encounter in the NBA, I may as a referee over time learn those things, but it's easy. I have plausible deniability if you curse at me in a foreign language. I mean, you just say something in Slovenian and be like, look, I don't know what translation you're going. This is like regional slang. Like people in my own city growing up barely understand this. Like, come on. You got this.

Starting point is 00:09:23 This is just what the kids say when I was when I was like a teenager. IRL. Yeah. It's, but like those, those two guys were part of a very strong defensive effort. And, you know, JJ talked about it after the game. Like a lot of it is second effort, third effort. Are you quick to the ball? Are you, you know, there was a, you know, different plays where, you know, two or three guys are part of, you know, a tipped ball.

Starting point is 00:09:51 And then, you know, I think did you, I think you mentioned that sequence on the baseline where, you know, smart grabs Avando, like ends up, you know, keeping a ball alive after I, and then, you know, smart grabs it and throws it off, you know, another player. I think that was, you know, smart had a couple plays like that. Yeah. It was just like, though, but those are like, yeah, I think it was Jackson. It was Jackson and Smart who were involved in that one. Like, those are plays that just involved two or three extra bits of effort. And honestly, you wouldn't necessarily even be. dinged if nobody would notice if you didn't see that last one or something like then. The Lakers put in all of that throughout the game. We want to talk about Austin. We want to talk about the upcoming schedule and what this might do because you may have heard the Lakers have struggled against the best teams in the league. So plenty more to cover on a great 11097 win on Sunday.

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Starting point is 00:13:20 This seems to me to be the model, 10 minutes for Maxi, 17 from Jackson, 20 from Aiton. against teams with bigs and stuff. This is why it matters if Aiton's around, if Maxi's available, because all three of them perform slightly different functions. Jackson obviously is very bouncy. He's the best above the rim finisher with Luca and all that kind of stuff. Aiton sets a little bit of, you know, meaner screen and does that kind of stuff and, you know, has some, you know, different defensive capabilities.

Starting point is 00:13:56 and Claiba is kind of your defensive quarterback when he plays with good passer. They all do stuff slightly differently. It matters when they're all available. And you could see on Sunday, I thought, JJ taking advantage of the skill sets of all three of them and applying them where in the game that they needed to go. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:14 I mean, I don't know if it's necessarily the model or formula moving forward because I don't mean like in terms of like each, that's the number of minutes they're going to play. No, no, no. I just mean mixing and matching where you want the right player. No, I understand. that. I'm saying I don't even know if that holds because a lot of this calculus changes if

Starting point is 00:14:30 LeBron's available. Those front court minutes change dramatically if LeBron can play. He didn't play in this game because of that elbow injury that he incurred versus Denver. I had some concerns. I wasn't surprised that he missed the Indiana game. Second end of a back-to-back, the Lakers should be able to beat the Pacers with or without LeBron. But I had had some concerns. that it might be more of a one-game absence. I'm hoping that it doesn't stretch into Tuesday versus the wolves. LeBron did go through a pre-game workout. He had been a game-time decision. So if nothing else, that hopefully means he will be close to being back. I know based on the chatter in the comments section, also on Twitter that I saw at Cam Brothers, this game serves as confirmation that the Lakers are better without LeBron,

Starting point is 00:15:25 that they can win more games without LeBron. I don't think the Lakers become better without LeBron. But what I do think this game demonstrates is how much cleaner it is when you have two ball dominant offensive focal points to work around than three. Like the math just becomes simpler. The formula just becomes simpler. So it speaks to the challenge of making it all work and maximizing all three of those guys are really maximizing LeBron and Austin.

Starting point is 00:15:58 It is no, it is no entirely a coincidence, no entire coincidence, that Austin had this game without LeBron simply because his opportunities and usage went up. He, I thought, did a better job of, you know, making shots, getting into the paint, you know, being aggressive. JJ talked before the game about wanting to see Austin be more aggressive in the moments he's on the court regardless of who is or who is not out there with them. But there's no question that LeBron's absence, it creates certain problems in terms of what you get from LeBron and how do you replicate it, find it in other places.

Starting point is 00:16:39 But from a pure simplicity standpoint, it makes things easier. And that's the riddle that the Lakers are figuring out over the rest of the regular season and during the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, let's just stick on that. that because you know we're going to get to austin in a in a few minutes anyway like like i said like i thought the other night against the pacers for example like started off really slow he had trouble getting a shot you know getting his shot to fall um from one of eight in the first half five of second i think in the second um and in in this one it was you know jj said

Starting point is 00:17:20 we asked you they've been trying to drill into him we need you to be offensively very aggressive. We want you to think of yourself as a score. We want you to call your own number and all that. And Austin's creating both looks for himself and good looks for other people. When he gets in the paint, good things happen for the Lakers,

Starting point is 00:17:37 whether he's the one who finishes the play ultimately or not. Austin finished the game 8 of 16. He got the line seven times. Again, five assists against only one turnover. He got shots to fall. But I do think, you know, which always helps, but I do think there was a little bit of a difference in sort of the confidence with which he was playing. And sort of the knowledge that there's going to be another shot for me the next trip down and there's me another one.

Starting point is 00:18:12 Like I can I can build more rhythm too. It's not even just about your shot count. It's I will have a chance to just build into a comfort zone. And he's a guy who, you know, he it's it's funny to watch like you can sit there and like there's a lot of sometimes efforting to get to his spot or what looks like it because he just doesn't generally beat guys with the blow by on the perimeter or whatever. There's usually some sort of change of speed or a little change of direction and all that. But at the moment where the shot goes up, you can be like, ooh, okay, he's getting, like, that's a clean look. And for the most part, I've been thinking in the last three or four games, the looks have been pretty clean once he gets to them. He's not, he's missing a lot of shots. But,

Starting point is 00:18:54 the difference between Sunday, and I think is, like what you say, it's that that usage and also the knowledge that it's not even like, like, you are the, you were right there with Luca. Like you're going to win unless you go out and try to get yourself 25, 30 points. Yeah. Also, too. I mean, and this is another piece of the puzzle with LeBron. Like, part of the reason the Lakers won this game was their defense and a big piece. of that defense.

Starting point is 00:19:26 I mean, really the biggest, probably the biggest reason in really that they won this game was their defense because especially the fourth quarter, the offense stalls out. They really had to rely on a level of defense that they really played for 48 minutes. And this Lakers team, whether you're talking about last year and the run that they had with that super switchy defense that for a while was like the number one defense in the league until it wasn't, or what we saw.

Starting point is 00:19:54 today, which wasn't necessarily fueled by super switchingness, the commonality in both of those is playing hard for 48 minutes. Like the energy level of, I thought the entire team from start to finish was as high as any game I can recall this season. In order for the Lakers to be the best defensive version of themselves, they have to play super high energy engagement. basketball, period. They have no other choice. That's the only way they can make this work. And that is harder with LeBron at this stage of his career. That is just harder for him to do. It's harder for them to do, which, again, speaks to another piece of the puzzle to figure out. There are obvious upsides to having LeBron out there as well. And, you know, the work that we've

Starting point is 00:20:49 seen the Lakers over the last couple of weeks or so operating out of the post with LeBron being more facilitator from that spot than actual scorer. That's a real that's a real weapon for this. And how they play. I do think though how they play defensively is somewhat dependent on. I think as a team they've been better. LeBron

Starting point is 00:21:08 has been been better. But you can't ask him to, there are certain things you just can't do at a 36 minute a night level or at least hasn't shown that he's able to do that

Starting point is 00:21:24 over the court for season. Now, does that mean, does that, the test is going to be once he's able to get back in the lineup, does that change, does the amount of effort that he can put out defensively change over the last, you know, what is it, 20 games, give or take of the year and into the playoffs? If the answer is yes, no, no problems. The answer is no, JJ has some really difficult. things to try to balance. But it's also too, it's like they just they got all it's everybody too. Like you know, Rui had seven rebounds in this game.

Starting point is 00:22:04 Rui was really good in this game man. You know, really good. Aiton was was plugged in in terms of his effort and energy and attention. And Jackson was like that and all this like they like Luca was putting out the effort. Like they need all of it and then they have to figure out. out this portion with LeBron. And also, too, I think their offense gets worse. Not just like LeBron can't play defense. It's the offense with all three of them has not been as good.

Starting point is 00:22:38 There's all kinds of stuff that they have to unpack with this, which we will continue doing, by the way, next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. College basketball is nonstop, big games, tight spreads, momentum swings. Every single night and from early, tip-offs to the late-night West Coast shootouts. There's always action on the board. Fanduel is giving you now a way to turn that energy into bigger potential wins

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Starting point is 00:25:01 how they build. Like, because this is a, you know, they got Minnesota on Tuesday, a bit of a break, if you will, against the Bulls. The Bulls. And then it's like pure gauntlet here. It's Denver, two games against Houston, Miami, Orlando, and then the Pacers on the 25th. So between now and that Pacers game, I guess the easiest one would be Miami. But if that's your easiest game over one, two, three, four. five, six, seven. If that's your easiest game over the next seven other than the Bulls,

Starting point is 00:25:39 that's tough stretch. Miami even Miami is not very good, but they are always a challenge to play. You always have to show that you, so, you know, I, my big thing is like, can they, I think they needed to win this game. Like this was a, an important game, not just in the standings, where the Lakers are still, despite everything we keep talking about, are right up there with a chance still to finish third, especially given their games against Houston. But given everything that they needed to try to sort of quiet people about a loss on Sunday would have been really, really problematic. Instead, they get the win.

Starting point is 00:26:22 And the question now becomes, how successfully do you think you can build on it? If you beat Minnesota on Tuesday, you're functionally going to be tied with them in the standings. You know, they're only a game behind Houston right now. They move into a tie with Denver. They're now two and a half games ahead of Phoenix. I mean, they're two and oh against Minnesota this year. Really, they already had the tiebreaker. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:49 Oh, yeah. Game on touch them about the seedings. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You can catch them out right for the time being at least with a win. And so going into these games, how much can you sustain? How much can they learn and build that muscle memory of what they did to be successful? Again, not in making New York miss open shots, but in the kind of defensive disruption that caused turnovers, that contested rebounds, that got loose balls and all that.

Starting point is 00:27:22 Well, I mean, here's, we talked about the effort and energy on the defensive end, but the Lakers out offensive rebounded, the Knicks, a team with Mitchell Robinson and Carl Anthony Towns and Josh Hart, 12 to 10. Like, when is the last time you remember the Lakers winning the battle on the offensive boards? Take it a step further. They won the second chance points battle, 15 to 9. When is the last time you remember the Lakers winning that particular?

Starting point is 00:27:52 battle. And those are also elements of physicality and effort and, you know, getting to every 50-50 ball. Like this was a game and we had had some concerns heading into not just a matinee game, which NBA players generally hate to play, but a matinee game on the first day of daylight savings, which makes it feel even an hour, you know, an hour earlier than they think is like a human rights violation to play at. So like this, there were concerns in and of itself just with the timing of this game. And this marks a really important stretch for the Lakers moving forward just from their own mentality and mindset.

Starting point is 00:28:39 I think proof of concept. Like even if you believe in yourself like 5,000 foot view, you need the proof that what you're doing works. Otherwise, after a while, it just becomes an exercise in talking yourself into believing what you want and arguably just being Pollyanna about stuff. Like, you actually got to win the games. Yeah, I agree. And like at some point, it's, you know, like the Denver game, for example, there were good things to pull from it. Like, I don't think that game was hardly a disaster.

Starting point is 00:29:12 The first three minutes were. And that's basically what they spent the rest of the game trying to overcome. come. But the game itself was not. Like, they fought really hard in that game. They, you know, a lot of the, a lot of the things that they did defensively, you could actually, you know, draw in terms of energy and effort and things like that, you could go back to the Denver game and say, you know, that was there too. And, you know, they, I think JJ had pointed out like they're a top 15 defense over the last 24 game.

Starting point is 00:29:44 They held Jamal Murray to eight points over the last five. four minutes of the first half and all of the second half. Like it was a lot like the last time they played Denver, albeit in a win, where Jamal Murray had 26 points in the first half, torched them, held a two in the second. Like in this recent loss against the Nuggets, Jamal Murray had nine of his 28 points in the first two minutes and 55 seconds.

Starting point is 00:30:11 He had 20 in, I guess, the first 20 minutes of the game. He had eight from the rest moving on. Nikola Yokic had nine turnovers. Like, they did do a fair amount good in that game. They just dug themselves way too big of a hole. This game against the Knicks, they led wire to wire. And it also, to me, at least, emphasizes the difference between winning and losing.

Starting point is 00:30:34 Like, they in the locker room need to be process-oriented. You know, they can look at it and be like, you know, we did get to, like, we didn't win. We got to within a possession. If we keep doing those things in the next game, we got a chance to win. And look, they, in a lot of ways, they did. and they won the game.

Starting point is 00:30:49 But at some point, you need to win a game. Like, you know, you can build and you can see, but these are human beings. And you need to see, like you called it earlier, proof of concept that the stuff you're doing will be good enough. And, you know, when you go out and you beat a Knicks team that has been as good as any team in the East over the last, you know, a few weeks, they are, you know, that's what that is. and it was super important. And I just want to see, can they build that muslim? They spent so long being so bad on that side of the ball. And they've gotten better.

Starting point is 00:31:30 But this was one of the few games where you've seen it where everyone was kind of doing it the same way, where there weren't any holes really in what they were trying to do defensively. And everybody's attention and everybody's effort. Everybody's going to make mistakes. You're going to miss a rotation. you're going to get buried on a screen sometimes or, you know, late to try to take a charge, whatever it might be. But if you're constantly at least trying and trying to hit all the stuff that you know

Starting point is 00:31:59 you're supposed to be doing, that is like step one. Like I said, of the, what is it, 10 Lakers who stepped on the court today, none of them were a defensive weakling. And I do not remember the last time I've said that, if I've said that, if I've said that, this season about the Lakers. Like even in a game where I thought they played well defensively, there would be one or two guys that you need to work around or maybe even a few guys,

Starting point is 00:32:25 but Marcus Smart, Jared Vanderbilt, I don't know, like La Ravia's activity or Aitner Hayes around the rim with some blocks like offset what was going on or LeBron has a couple chase down blocks or whatever. Like all 10 guys in this game defended at worst like a, neutral. I actually think everyone out there contributed as a plus. And that was huge, huge in making sure this win happened. Because again, the fourth quarter, their offense really, really struggled. And not because they weren't executing. It's because they weren't making shots. They missed a lot of

Starting point is 00:33:06 open looks. And they managed to offset this by forcing the Knicks into just as many misses. Yeah, I would, I'd sort of disagree about the, the idea that they weren't, you know, that they were executed. They did miss a lot of open shots, but I also think that the movement offensively kind of ground to a halt. I was not super enthusiastic about the way they were generating a lot of their shots. Well, I also thought, I mean, to be fair, I thought the Knicks also cranked up their defense. Oh, they absolutely did. In the second half in particular, they really started harassing Luca and Austin. with the ball.

Starting point is 00:33:44 Like I think they were generally, they were making it more difficult for the Lakers. They absolutely work. And the Lakers, I am, but the Lakers responded to that pressure by mostly just sort of, all right,

Starting point is 00:33:56 Luca, you try. Okay, all right, Austin, you try. And that's basically where it went. And so I was really, this was a fun game to watch in terms of the results. It's kind of a choppy game. But like two teams working hard,

Starting point is 00:34:13 a lot of good talent on the floor. A very positive win for the Lakers. So plenty more to break down over this, get you ready for the rest of the week. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. Do check the show notes.

Starting point is 00:34:27 Look for that every day or club. See if it's for you. We'll see everyone next time.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Defense Fuels 110-97 Win Over New York, Luka Dončić Scores 35, Austin Reaves 25

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